Protesters gathered last week outside the California home of Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Tim Sloan, where one homeowner was arrested while trying to deliver her mortgage payment directly to Sloan.

Ana Casas Wilson, a California homeowner who has cerebral palsy that forces her to use a motorized wheel chair, waited on Sloan’s front porch so she could hand him a payment on her foreclosed home. Casas Wilson has lived in her home for 27 years, but fell behind on her payments during a hospital stay. Wells Fargo, she said, has been unwilling to negotiate a modification, even though she is again able to make regular payments. After police allowed her to remain on Sloan’s porch for 15 minutes, she was arrested when she refused to leave, the Los Angeles Times reports:

Just before 8 p.m., about 90 minutes into the demonstration, police formed a line around the home, declared the assembly illegal and ordered the group to move 75 feet up the street.

Casas Wilson refused to go and was taken to San Marino police headquarters with the assistance of San Marino Fire Department paramedics.

Casas Wilson isn’t alone. Banks have used shady foreclosure processes throughout the housing crisis, and Wells Fargo has been one of the worst offenders. It has used fraudulent practices like robo-signing, foreclosed on homes over clerical errors, and used a process known as dual-tracking— in which it advises customers on loan modifications while also pursuing foreclosure. Wells Fargo was part of a $25 billion mortgage fraud settlement with state attorneys generals and the federal government and has had to pay multi-million-dollar settlements when homeowners took the bank to court.

The practices have hit homeowners who are struggling for various reasons, whether because of unemployment, rising health care costs, or disability. In March, Bank of America foreclosed on a homeowner who took out a loan to make her house more accessible to her disabled daughter, even after the bank offered a modification. “I’m doing this because people need to see what the banks are doing. It’s awful. It has to stop,” Casas Wilson told the Pasadena Sun. “When I was down and out in the hospital they took my house.”

Travis Waldron is a reporter/blogger for ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Travis grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and holds a BA in journalism and political science from the University of Kentucky. Before coming to ThinkProgress, he worked as a press aide at the Health Information Center and as a staffer on Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway’s 2010 Senate campaign. He also interned at National Journal’s Hotline and was a sports writer and political columnist at the Kentucky Kernel, the University of Kentucky’s daily student newspaper.

Voting is important if you prefer it to revolution. But we need to realize Dems and Repubs alike are loyal to their big donors, not the people. We need to amend the Constitution to overturn the Citizens United court decision. Corporations should have no rights in lobbying, campaigning, and everything to do with elections and democratic government. We have to realize the media is owned by a few big corporations and love getting paid millions for political advertizing--and are not going to put the country ahead of their profits. We have to find out for ourselves who Rocky Anderson is and vote for him for President especially in places like Utah.

Here's real world advice for dealing with your mortgage company:
The minute you realize you are going to be late with your mortgage, call them. Don't wait until you're already late, don't wait for them to call you. If you realize it's going to be be ongoing situation, work out a payment plan immediately. The biggest mistake people make is to wait until their credit is ruined with late payments and they look like a bad risk because the mortgage company has had to come chasing after them for information and payments. Take action while you still look good to them. Understand, not every payment plan will be acceptable, and they WILL look at your other debt and your overall debt/income ration If you've buried yourself with credit card debt and other debts that will likely bring judgments against you, or they realize that the other payments will make it impossible for you to keep the payments you've suggested, they're going to have less flexibility to make deals.
Don't, don't, don't hide your head in the sand and just refuse to take their calls and then expect they will negotiate a payment plan when you're months behind and they start to threaten foreclosure, or that a payment plan that pays less than your interest alone will work. Most morgage companies will do anything to avoid foreclosure. They honestly don't want to deal with empty houses in a bad economy. No one is making money that way. They'd rather have your payments coming in.
If you, yourself, are too upset, sick or preoccupied to deal with these issues, appoint a friend or family member to do it for you and let the company know this person has permission to speak for you. The more proactive you are, the better result you will have.

I did that 10 years ago when I had been sick and was never going to be able to earn again what my education, experience, and little business had brought. I notified a couple credit card companies that I was in trouble, permanently severely disabled, and wanted to renegotiate the minimum payments. They wouldn't do it--the hardship programs weren't available until you were in so much financial trouble that your credit was ruined and their only other choice was to write it off as un-collectible. In the meantime the payments went through the roof when I was one day late, and no matter what I did the balance was growing like a huge cancer too because of the high interest. I had about $40,000 0n those two cards because I had a business--and could easily pay when the economy and I were healthy. When they finally had really ruined me, they set up payment plans--I am still paying and will for another 5 years. Seems like they didn't lower the rate until after first shooting it to about 26% for so long that 6% forever is a more affordable payment--but on an balance so inflated that it isn't fair. As I see it, running the balance up by thousands in just months by jacking the interest so high allows them to write off imaginary money if it does become uncollectible. And they really lucked out because I have been paying even if I go without food or meds. I wonder what the recapture rules are on such things. Does the bank have to pay any taxes for getting a write-off, and paid?
My brother who is an attorney in Arizona ran into the same thing in the more recent Obama home saving program. He had borrowed against his house to run his practice--which is what the banks required of all small businesses and professionals when the economy was good-- but the economy affected his house value and the amount his practice was bringing in. And he had been launching kids, including 2 with disability instead of having a big stash. He was actually advised to stop making his payments to qualify as distressed. And then eventually told that worked against refinancing him.

If all the abusers of power were faced with their victims, there might be a chance they would not commit crimes. The "law" protects them against all sorts of justices, people's or otherwise. Guess who made the laws? Those that we voted for to protect us against abuse.... Instead, they are protecting abusers. Still believe voting is the right thing to do?

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